The Jester
by maddie.stewart
Summary: Bella moves to a small town called Forkes with her aunt, because she hides a deep and dark secret, but Edward does also. Complications arise within the plot and it is not the Twilight you'd expect it to be :O
1. The Jester

BELLA & EDWARD though not how you think it actually is…

THE JESTER

I drifted through the corridors feeling like I was in a nightmare, the textbooks weighing me down as I clutched them against my chest, my heart beat prominently thumping. I didn't know why I should feel so frightened. I was aware that a new town, house and school were all factors consisting with my erratic emotions, but they shouldn't have been causing my hands and legs to tremble with cold-blooded terror. I'd faced challenging fears in my fifteen-year life span and I wasn't shot down or stabbed in the back. Of course, it was inevitable that some girls wounded girls my age in the back figuratively, but never had I once been killed. I have luck within my stride.

The clanging of locker doors and the ripping pages as books dropped to the floor filled my ears, making me jumpy. A paper airplane flew centimetres above my head from behind, hitting a girl in the eye, creating fresh moisture in her dry pupils. I ducked my head and kept walking, because I was not feeling in the slightest prepared to feel sympathy to a complete stranger. I felt eyes on me the entire time I walked through that corridor, their burning glares and curiosity filled within their eyes.

I always had the ability to read people very easily, but other people found it difficult to see me. I wasn't like any old library book that could be bought of the shelf and read on a couch in the sun with lemonade. I was more like a heavy, dusty, small-printed thousand-paged book that never leaves the shelves in case of emergency boredom. Even my own auntie didn't fully understand me, which is probably why she shipped me off with her here, to get to know me better in a smaller town, such as this town, with a population of approximately 400 people, not even.

"Gosh, watch where you're walking!" a girl shouted in my ear, bumping me into a locker next to me. I winced at the pain I felt in my arm when it connected with the metal. I inspected the injury, making a firm decision that it was definitely going to bruise the next day. Luckily that I didn't cry out, or I think that would have deserved another snide remark. I tried to sink into the crowd, lucking again that I wasn't a six feet beach volleyball player or in the most unlikely a case, a hobbit.

I was too preoccupied at attempting to become invisible that after convincing myself that I was, I was completely unnoticeable to an opening door. The knock against my forehead forced me backwards, feeling the hit of the marble floor on the back of my head. This time, I think I earned the right to let out a tiny yelp of pain, feeling the beating of my heart in my ears rather than my chest.

"It's called a door in case you didn't notice," a guy drawled, kicking my leg in the process. I was nearly in tears, the realization that at any moment another door could easily open on me, this time making me bleed. I made slow progress in heaving myself up off the floor, by head spinning and blood rushing to my head. I could hear the laughter that surrounded me in the corridor, both masculine and feminine. My cheeks burned a flushed crimson and I brought my hair closer to me, curtaining me from the other students.

"I should have come at the start of the year, not half way through it," I mumbled incoherently to myself, trudging away from the scene where I was flattened against the ground, feeling a pair of bright honey eyes on me through my chocolate brown hair to my left. I slowed down, turning my head slightly in the direction of the honey eyes, looking squarely into them. The lips were turned up into a sly and amused smirk, the eyebrows raised. His hair was a rich golden-brown colour, which flopped neatly almost across his forehead. His eyes were intense though, causing me to feel queasy and embarrassed.

I almost stupidly opened my mouth to say something, but stopped myself and kept walking, feeling the eyes on me. I felt confused by that little incident, the way that boy's eyes stared at me, as if I were some science project he was studying. I was nearly almost allured by his striking emerald eyes. The way his mouth curled up into a smile caused me to turn an even brighter scarlet at even thinking about it. I turned around again to see the boy still staring at him, noticing how attractive he really was. I shook my head of these absurd thoughts, continuing my walk.

The bell alerted me to my second class and it frightened me, considering I had missed the first from meeting with the principle, who seemed friendly enough, though a bit odd: I felt the ear piercing ringing and dinging still going on in my ears. I virtually sprinted to my classroom, my thick hair coming out of my hair tie. I knocked open the door and bumped fully into the teacher. The students in the class laughed, causing my cheeks to turn red once again. I was still blushing when I handed the teacher my slip. He looked at me sternly, and then cast his eyes to the classroom.

He didn't introduce me or say anything to the class, saving me from any more mortification by informing everyone of my freshness, if it were even possible. But that didn't stop some of the students from sniggering and pointing at me like I was a clown, while others just stared like scared rabbits. I ducked my head and was directed by the teacher, whose name I hadn't even learned yet, to a desk right in the middle of four others, closer to the window. I nearly tripped over a book that lay in the centre of my path, awarding myself another humiliation.

"Pick up my book!" I detected the same voice I had heard earlier. I soon realized it was the voice of the girl that had bumped me into the lockers. She flipped her hair with her hand and indicated with the other her book that lay open flat down on the floor. I bent over to pick it up and then chucked it to her desk, not in the mood for another fight.

"Here you go," I mumbled with a slight inflection of sarcasm in my voice, though I knew this girl was too oblivious to notice things like that. She merely flipped her again with her wrist and began to surprisingly pay attention to the teacher, who turned out to be Mr. Richardson. Nothing too special: it was simple, just how I enjoyed things. I kept on walking down the classroom, scanning the multiple faces of students, my eyes falling on a familiar one. Bright honey eyes: and that heart-stopping smile I had witnessed just seconds ago.

I blushed once again for the fifth time that day, realizing suddenly that it was the eye-catching boy who stared at me in the corridors. He looked at me again this time, but it wasn't in the slightest unnerving. It was refreshing, seeing his crooked smile gazing up at me from his desk. I gave a small, shy smile and chose to sit down, rather than draw attention to myself by standing up. I chose the seat second closest to the window, enjoying the sight of rain dribbling down the window slowly.

"Get out your books and open to Act III, Scene I and read, so forth so forth, you know the rest." The class laughed at the joke, but I wasn't in on it, so I didn't laugh. The boy next to me on the right was nearly in hysterics, though I assumed he was bellowing about another funny joke floating around the classroom. I was startled that the joke was pointed at me. I saw two or three girls giggling to one another and turning obviously around to look at me. I tried unsuccessfully to ignore it, but couldn't control the helpless feeling of wanting to jump out the window, even if that nice looking boy did smile at me.

"You know, it does get better." I twisted to my right to see big blue puppy dog eyes and a wide toothy grin on a white background looking in my direction. "Mm, I'm sure it does," I muttered, alarming myself at how blunt and unemotional I sounded. "Hey, I'm Mike Newton." He reached his hand towards mine and I took it tentatively. His skin was relatively pale, but he pulled it off with his surfie blonde hair look. "And you must be Bella Swan?" My eyebrows raised a fraction at how this boy knew my name.

"Yes. But how do you know that?" "In a small general area like this, word gets around pretty quickly." His face was forthcoming and his smile was bright, so instantly I decided this boy could be very viable as a simple friend. "Ha, I'd imagine it would. So about this whole situation getting better… want to enlighten me on that?"

"Well, if you have friends and do the schools work, you should fit in just fine." It seemed feasible enough, though it sounded too simple, which was a strange and unknown horizon to me. I was just so used to the weird of every thing, even the things that wouldn't seem unusual. "Thanks. That sounds good enough to me." I smiled at him weakly, receiving a huge boyish grin from him, which made me believe I might have won him over.

"If I can help or anything, you can hang around me and my mates. They are pretty welcoming." I assumed they would just be like him, so I jumped the gun to get more friends on my list. "Sounds good to me," I said again, reminding myself that I really needed to find other lines to say. "Meet you at the cafeteria or whatever it is you call it after this class? I just have to hand in a form to the reception."

"Sweet!" he yelled, attracting attention from the other students and Mr. Richardson. The honey-eyed boy glanced at me, then to the boy sitting next to me, his soft smile turning into a grin. I turned a ruby red, trying to muffle my laughter behind my fist. "Mr Newton, would you care to tell me what it is you find so amusing about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?" Mike looked over at me; his eyes wide and I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing how he could answer that question.

"Um, see the thing is…" He jumped up onto the table and I was struck by shock at how swift he was. "I find myself relating to the character of Mercutio. I mean, seriously, he is a hilarious bloke." "Yes, you are correct. But when stating a point of view of a certain character or scene or anything for that matter in my English class, I would expect evidence."

"Okay, hear me out sir." Mike picked up his loose-leaf sheet of paper, poking in two holes for eyes to peek out of. "Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer face!" The class erupted into an outcry of laughter and I was shaking with hilarity, Mike grinning triumphantly at me, bowing in a curtsey to me. Mr. Richardson was smiling at Mike, which was a good sign. When the class had eventually calmed down, Mike took his spot on his seat again. The honey-eyed boy shook his head, an amused expression on his face, but then faced the front again, so all I could do was gaze at the back of his golden-brown hair.

"Well Mr Newton, I'm impressed. And hear I was thinking you just skiied your entire June holidays." Giggles and hoots went around the class, but Mike wasn't fazed by it.  
"I'm very well prepared for the next essay sir. 'But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?'" He motioned to the window, his hands up in an action as if he were calling to the birds. It seemed to me that I probably was not going to receive the marks I wanted in English, because of distractions in class. Mr. Richardson shook his head, already gathering up his books.

"You can all pack up early and head off to lunch. Though I will be expecting papers due tomorrow on my desk in the morning on the themes within Act II and I want examples and quotes from the text. That is the same for Act I if you have not handed it in yet. And if for some reason you are unable to bring that to me, speak to me now or write down a full page of various reasons. Class dismissed." People moved a fraction of a second later, not sure if whether they heard him right.

It felt somewhat American to have the teacher say the words 'class dismissed', but I just let it blow over my head, pretend it was normal as was everything else. The bell rang seconds after Mr. Richardson allowed us to leave a fraction earlier. I gathered all my things together, putting them in my backpack, though I wasn't aware of the fact that the other students came prepared to each and every class in one bag, as appose to sluggishly going back and forth to their locker: I now felt as though I was in a deep puddle where I swan as a duckling, but everyone else had matured.

"Why are you carrying that around when you have a locker? Gosh, I thought I was dumb!" I glanced up from my table to see the girl who bumped me into the lockers with her hands on her hips. _You are dumb though _is what I thought to myself, but I wasn't going to point that out to her in case she shoved me into the wall. I still braced myself though, arranging my feet into a mode of self-defence. No one had left the class yet, and I could see through the girl's followers the honey-eyed boy leaning against his chair with his arms crossed.

"Cut it out Victoria, no one wants to hear you whining." Thanks Mike. I sheepishly looked up at him, not realizing how tall he actually was. He winked at me cheekily, making me turn red again, but this time I was able to look the girl he just called Victoria in the eyes. Her eyes were simply how I expected them to be. Without her heavy eyeliner and shadow, her bright blue eyes could actually make her look attractive. I assumed she was too full of herself to notice.

"Oh Mike!" she exclaimed, basically throwing herself at him, causing him to look at me with a weird expression. I attempted at keeping myself from grinning at him. "You know this is the warm welcome we give _all _our students here!" "I've dealt with girls like you before," I blurted out of nowhere, my eyes growing wide at what I said. But it was too late to take back what I said. The honey-eyed boy was already grinning at me, giving me a wink.

"What did you say to me?" Though my eyes had turned wide, hers did the opposite and narrowed. I opened my mouth but no sound came out for a matter of seconds. I decided upon building up my courage and saying what I meant. "You know what? I am sick of girls like you treating girls like me like I don't matter. I may be new here, but I am a hell of a lot smarter than you are. Your vanity overruns you, so all you can care about is how your hair looks today." A round of applause ran through the crowd of spectators and Mike clapped me on the back gently and encouragingly. Even the honey-eyed boy was impressed.

But Victoria had a comeback for that, stepping closer towards me with a glare in her eyes. "You better guard your tongue _Isabella_," she sneered, not sounding like the princess she had before, instead venomous and her features became snake like. The rest of the class slowly began to quieten and all that could be heard was Victoria's voice. "You never know what can happen when you mess with people such as me. Watch it," she added, giving me a last little shove into Mike, who caught me from falling on the ground.

I looked back to the class, some of them nodding in approval towards my strength, while others stared at me with scared expressions as though they feared for my safety. The honey-eyed boy walked up to Mike and I, gave a pat on Mike's shoulder telling him he would see him later and gave me a very inquiring, but solemn look.

I bent my head; feeling at an utter loss, that even though I'd shown courage, Victoria had ripped me to shreds and I'd imagine it won't be the last time. I felt Mike's arm come around my shoulders, slung in a comforting way. I believe he knew how I felt and attempted at making me feel prouder of myself. "Here, how 'bout another beautiful quote from 'Romeo and Juliet'?" I nodded, so he reached his hand forward to put it against my cheek, while we made our way slowly out the door.

"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!" My cheeks burned and my body felt instantly overheated. I had never received so much attention at the one time. Mike was such a sweet guy, but I did not enjoy all the consideration, because it made me feel almost unworthy, for some odd reason. I shrugged it off though, trying to respond articulately, failing miserably.

"Um, I, well," I stuttered, tripping over my own feet. "I have to go to the reception, so I will see you in the cafeteria?" Mike smiled warmly at me, giving me a hug. _Gosh he is very friendly isn't he? _I grinned at myself, feeling quite better about my entire new student situation, ignoring the fact that I didn't necessarily deserve it. "See you in a minute Bella!" he crowed, high fiving people along the hallway in the opposite direction to me. I shook my head at him this time, grinning almost the entire way to the reception.


	2. A Friendship

A FRIENDSHIP

The reception, if that's what one would call it, smelt. I was unsure what of, but all I could detect was a musty, paint smell. I just assumed all school offices smelt the same, and probably had the same boring and monotone voiced middle age receptionists with shining white teeth and glossy blonde hair. The boy in front of me was fidgeting with his schoolbooks, vibes running through me and alerting to me that he was nervous. I leant in towards him to ask him if he was okay when he suddenly withdrew and ran out the door.

_That was slightly more awkward than I would have wanted things to be _I thought, my eyebrows slowly rising. I shook my head, a reflex action that I had just accustomed to. I walked up to the desk to hand in some forms my aunt had to sign for me to attend the school here at Forkes High, which happens to be approximately 5 km away from where I now live: the boring old neighbourhood where mostly retired residents live.

Forkes, for all I can make assumptions of, is a small town that is mostly cold and wet and raining, with hardly any people or means of entertainment and simple non-veranda front houses. Sure, there was a beautiful lake, which was swimmable in, but only in the summer, but hardly even then did we get good weather days. I reminisce un-wanting of when I came here with my close relatives and my best friend. They were the happy moments, which I tried to erase because it hurt too much.

I don't know why I shudder, thinking about the name of the school and town, the sensation goose bumps creeping up and down my legs and arms. Maybe it was because of the memories it gave or the emotions that sprung within me at the feel of the names rolling around in my mind. I sighed heavily, receiving a strange look from the receptionist, whose hair wasn't blonde but red, with heavily put on make-up. I pulled a slack smile, holding out the sheets of paper to her.

She pursed her lips while she read through the pages, her glasses almost falling off the brim of her nose. I waited patiently for her to decipher whether the sheets of papers were viable enough to be submitted to her. Her eyes widened when it got to the section of 'family history' and she gazed up at me with a shocked expression on her. I ignored the look she showed unhidden towards me, and held my hand out slowly to show I wanted to leave.

She cleared her throat, readjusting her pink glasses up to her eyes with one hand; while the other gave me back the sheets I could take back to my aunt. I smiled quickly, turning just as swiftly only to knock into a boy standing right behind me. I fell on my back once again, bruises neatly already brewing all over my body. The boy swore under his breath, but I could hear him and he dived down basically to inspect me for any fatal injuries. I was pleasantly, but inelegantly surprised at seeing those honey eyes again.

"Oh god, are you okay?" he asked huskily, clearing his throat and reaching out to touch my arm softly with his fingertips. An electric charge zapped at the skin-to-skin contact, though I didn't recoil and neither did him. He chuckled softly under his breath, running one of his hands through his hair in a casual manner, no detection of any unusualness within his enchanting eyes.

I smiled at him, but didn't laugh because I knew it meant something else. I studied his features a little more closely, noticing a slightly jagged, but unobvious scar that ran along his right cheekbone. He raised one eyebrow at my stunned silence and gazing, reaching his hand out. "Come on. I'll help you up: it can't be too comfortable on that cold floor." I slipped my hand in his, feeling his strength as he effortlessly lifted me up onto my feet. He smiled at me warmly, my cheeks flushing scarlet in response.

"Thank you…" I started, finding myself stuck for words because I wasn't aware of his name. "Edward," he said, reaching his hand forward to clasp in mine again. "Edward Cullen. I'm guessing you're Bella Swan, whom everyone is talking about." The question was rhetorical, so I settled by showing a slight notion of annoyance. "Is there anyone who doesn't know my name around here?"

"Well at a school from years 7-12, with only 95 students maximum," he informed me sarcastically, causing me to crack a smile. "No, everyone here knows you. But don't worry, the classes are combined from years 7-8 and 10-12, so there aren't too many in our year." "They only know my name, nothing else," I mumbled softly to myself, hoping he hadn't heard me. He merely gazed back at me serenely, which I suspected was because he himself was trying to hide that he hadn't heard me.

"I better get going," I said abruptly, stumbling over my own feet. "Thank you again Edward." "My pleasure," he politely replied, giving me a tiny imperceptible bow, which was only directed towards me. "It was nice bumping into you." I chuckled at his simple joke, giving him a small wave and turning to walk out, shaking my head at him in wonder.

"Hey Bella. Everyone, this is Bella Swan." I got an all round call of hellos, some of them enthusiastic, others just polite. I went to sit next to Mike, where he had left a seat available to me, and he clapped a hand gently on my back and encouragingly once again. I felt comfortable sitting with complete strangers, which was fascinatingly odd, but handy.

I looked around at everyone once, giving Mike's friends a small but friendly smile, and the ones I received were dazzlingly. A petite built and honey brown-eyed girl sitting right next to me placed her hand on my shoulder tenderly, her orange curls bouncing around her small face.

"I'm Jessica Stanley," she said in high-pitched voice, which was not in the least surprising because I assumed it would be sharp and suit her features: but it wasn't annoying, instead refreshing. "I'm in your Literature class and we're studying "The Road", the apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy. Have you read it?" she prompted me, her words tumbling out her mouth in a flurry. Her features deceived her, and she came through as being very intelligent.

"Hey Jessica, hold up a minute," Mike interjected, raising his hands as though the cops had guns held up to him. "Let everyone else introduce themselves before you ask a million questions." Jessica rolled her eyes at him, but stayed quiet, giving me a wink that indicated to me that she wasn't going to ask _too _many questions.

I gazed around the rest of the group, catching everyone's names and locked them into memory. Emmett was a football player, with the figure like a body builder, but subtler and gentler. He had a nice face and twinkling eyes that caused you to ignore his strong physique. Alice was outrageously hilarious, even more so than Mike. She had fierce features, almost cat-like eyes that made you feel nearly frightened, but her nature was more or less out there rather than abusive. She had jet-black hair that was spiky and suited her, and dark blue eyes that were narrowed.

Rosalie had the shape of a model, the type that nearly caused you to convulse because of their thinness. But she possessed amazing eyes, which were large and inhumanly beautiful, with soft hands that brushed your skin gently. She had kind and compassionate features that made me ignore her almost skeletal body, but I instantly liked her because of her approachable nature. Her hair was golden and dead straight, with a fringe that was cut short and looked very smart. There were three girls and two boys at this moment of time, until I realized there was someone yet to approach.

"Hey Edward, have you met Bella?" Mike crowed, indicating to me by lightly punching me on the arm. Edward beamed warmly at me, taking a seat between Emmett and Alice. "Yes, Bella and I bumped into each other at the reception," he answered, looking intently at me, not in an uncomfortable way, but in a curious way. I blushed again; hoping that no one noticed my reaction to him, though I saw Emmett grinning stupidly at me, while Mike appraised me with a near philosophical gaze.

"Gosh, I am a klutz," I commented, putting my hand to my forehead. "Bumped right into him and fell on my bum." I got a laugh for that joke, a booming one that I assumed came from Emmett. Edward chuckled, shaking his head at me. It seemed very strange that I could act so normally with the people I had just met and how much of a connection I already felt to honey-eyed Edward.

"Well, I guess we can all be like that sometimes," Jessica erupted, throwing her hands above her head. "Sometimes I wonder to myself whether I'll be next to fall on my ass!" Rosalie arched a perfect eyebrow at Jessica, shaking her head delicately from side to side to clear her mind.

"Sometimes I wonder whether you are high on alcohol and drugs Jess!" Alice stated, neither cruelly nor humorously, as though it were a well-known fact. "But who am I to judge. I know I'm no perfect angel of God." Everyone nodded their heads in mock solemnity, Mike raising his can of V, chiming "here here!" getting another laugh from the group. I shuffled uncomfortably in my chair at Alice's choice of words, feeling Edward's eyes on me.

"Hey I heard there is a big boating tournament happening tomorrow down at the lake this weekend," Emmett piped up, banging his fist against the table in anticipation. "I think we should all head down and take a look." We all put forth a mix of different feelings, though I stayed silent to wait and hear what the rest of the group wanted to input.

"I'm not really in the mood for getting my hair wet again Emmett," Rosalie replied dryly, giving him an almost pained look. "Seeing all those nice young blokes in speedos. Come on Roza Poza, what more can you want?" Jessica grinned, throwing a serviette at Rosalie's face, only for it to be swiped away quickly.

"I'm up for it if you all are. We can jump off the pier and take a nice dip!" It seemed Alice liked Mike's positivity as well as the rest of us. "Love the enthusiasm Mike. You could sell millions with that conviction. I think it would be a good idea for all of us, to let out hair loose," she stirred, bumping Rosalie, who sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Fine, I'll come. Just as long as it's not a repeat of last time." "Can't say I will oblige to that code of conduct," Emmett mocked, giving a lazy grin to Rosalie. "You'll just have to wait and see." "Good," Jessica said in a rushed voice, looking over at me. "What do you say Bella? Wanna see how we Forkes people do it here?" Everyone's eyes were on me, but I detected the clearest Edward's, whose facial expressions looked sceptical, as though he could see through my facade. I cracked a convincing smile, nodding my head.

"Why not?" I said, shrugging my shoulders in mock boredom, though I was more filled with adrenaline than anything. I had to grip reality and remember that it was normal, and this is what other normal people did. Everyone was persuaded with my response, the entirety of the group feeling pumped for the upcoming weekend. I stared up at Edward from underneath my eyelashes, only just noticing how tall he actually was. He looked back at me with a concentrated expression, inquisitiveness filled within his eyes.

"It's settled then," Mike chimed into the groups' convo, "And I'm assuming you're in too Edward?" I watched him, while he contemplated me as I felt this pull towards him that was so unusual and unexplainable. I began to feel quite dizzy at the amount of feelings and emotions I was feeling around this boy whom I had literally met only fifteen minutes before. I took a sip of water from my bottle and sat up straighter in my chair

"Of course," he answered in a free spirited tone, slumping back in his chair in a casual way. "Wouldn't miss it for the world." "Excellent!" Jessica exclaimed, her fervour stimulating her face. "Okay, so now we have a weekend planned." Just as she had finished, the bell rung once again, warning us that if we were all late and we could very well receive a detention which rewarded us no fun packed weekend.

"Don't you just love last period of the day?" Mike asked, virtually jumping out of his chair. "And it's already Wednesday." "Hump day everybody!" Alice yelled, hip and shouldering Emmett, only to make him move an inch. I grinned at the three of them, as did Edward who followed them and gave me a little wave, causing my temperature to rise.

"Bella," a smaller voice whispered from across the table, which I knew was Rosalie's. "Do you have Italian now?" "Yeah I do Rosalie," I smiled, feeling slightly elated at the fact that I would be having the next class with her. Rosalie beamed at me in a girlish manner, but it suited her very well.

"I am so glad," she breathed, coming round the chairs to walk with me slowly to the classroom. "I don't know how I would survive in my language classes alone _again_." She looked at me from the corner of her eye and burst into laughter and we giggled along the hallway to decipher the passato prossimo.

Rosalie and I walked out of the classroom in unison, not wanting to hear our teacher yell at us in both English and Italian at the same time. We laughed with one another, as though we had been friends since grade prep, rather than having just met at lunch. She was in her own way a little eccentric and rather indifferent to what she did, whether it was poke her tongue out at the teacher or give me a ridiculous wink that caused her lip to turn up. I could tell that Rosalie was a good friend to have and that made me somewhat a little happier.

We arrived outside the school in the parking section where the majority of the teachers parked their cars, but for us boys and girls on L-plates, we parked our bikes in the car parks. The rest of the group was standing around their bikes together, including Edward, so we were the last ones to come out of classes. Alice ran towards us and took us both in a big bear hug, which made Rosalie and I giggle even more than we already were.

"Gosh, you two," Alice said in a feline voice, placing her hands on her hips animatedly. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you two are best friends for life." Rosalie and I looked at each other, a rupture of laughter filling between us again. I hadn't laughed so much in a very long time, not since before… well, in just an extremely long time. Alice shook her head at us and walked us over to the group, her arms thrown out in exasperation.

"I don't know what we are going to do with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum here!" Jessica cackled a tremendous laugh that had us all nearly tumbling over in hilarity. "Okay, I think that's enough for one day," Mike chastised contemptuously but sarcastically, pointing his finger at each of us. "Our parentals will be wondering where we have headed off to." "Good point. I have to go to my singing lesson now," Jessica remembered, running around to her bike. "Catcha you all tomorrow."

"Hey wait up Jess!" Alice called after her, hopping onto her own bike. "Maybe you can give me a practice run! LALALALA!" "See you guys later," Emmett bellowed, giving a very special look to Rosalie especially, who blushed a little in her hollow cheeks. "Do you and Mike want to ride with me? I can dink you Rosalie!" "Now that would be a sight!" Edward shouted, awarding him a nodding of agreement.

"Oh shoosh," Rosalie retorted, brushing the hair from her eyes to walk straight towards Emmett and got up on his handlebars. "You make me out to seem like a posh English woman!" "Ah, I guess we should give you more credit," Mike said in a serious voice, placing his fist on his heart. "Scouts honour, we will never think you not capable of riding the handlebars."  
"Come on, let's go!" Emmett said, pushing his bike around. "My grandma will have made cup cakes for us. Do you two wanna come with us?" I looked up at Edward, completely aware that we were standing in close proximity.

"Nah, not tonight lady and gentlemen," Edward crooned, "_My_ grandma will want me home in time for dinner. Plus I can't let Bella make her way alone back to her joint." "Such a gentleman he is!" Mike cried, putting his mountain bike into gear. "Sleep tight tonight and don't let the bed bugs bite!" The three of them rode off out of the parking lot and Edward and I were left alone. He cleared his throat, while I tried to wipe my clammy hands on my jeans.

"Want me to walk you home?" Edward asked politely, because neither him nor I had a bike to ride on. "Sure, that sounds like a good idea to me."


End file.
